River Church NOLA
2026 Aug 16 Relational Miracles
  • See A Victory
  • Rest On Us
  • Trust In God
  • Worthy Of It All
  • We Fall Down
  • Intro
    We are in week two of our “I’ve Witnessed It” series, and day eight of our 21 Days of Prayer, as we ask God for revival — in our own lives, in our church, and in our nation.

    This series rests on two convictions: that God still does miracles, and that our faith has a great deal to do with whether we see them.

    Many of us are carrying things we simply cannot handle on our own — strained relationships, physical struggles, emotional weight. So let me ask you directly: do you believe God still does miracles?
    Psalm 77:13–14 NLT
    13 O God, your ways are holy. Is there any god as mighty as you? 14 You are the God of great wonders! You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations.
    Our God is a God of wonders, and we want to see him work wonders in your life. That’s why, at the end of each service in this series, we’re setting aside time for you to come forward for prayer.
    Jesus life was also marked by miracles. This next verse shows the shape of a balanced ministry.
    Matthew 9:35 NIV
    35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.
    Jesus did three things: he taught, he proclaimed, and he healed. A healthy church does all three.
    Teaching is discipleship — it feeds you and grows you. Some of our series lean into that side of ministry; our Totally True series, which just wrapped up on Wednesdays, was that kind of series, and last week’s message leaned that direction as well.
    Proclaiming is sharing the good news. We’re heading into fall, a season when many people will visit church if someone invites them — and there will be Sundays this season built around exactly that kind of invitation.
    Healing is where this series lives. We want to see miracles in people’s lives. We want God to heal every part of you where you are — in the old sense of the word — dis-eased, whether that’s your body, your relationships, your emotions, or your finances.
    As we looked at last week,

    Faith is the missing ingredient for miracles to happen.

    We want to build our faith stronger and stronger.
    What would it look like if we add the component that all healing requires… that’s faith. I know a lot of us want more faith. People ask constantly, How can I strengthen my faith.
    I believe faith can be built. All I can do as a pastor is create faith-filled environments and invite you to step into them alongside others who are doing the same.

    Step out in obedience, even in small things.

    Faith is built by doing, not just believing… saying yes to something God is nudging you to do. It might be a hard conversation, forgiving someone or asking God for forgiveness.

    Church Service attendance will build your faith.

    Our Wednesday and Sunday services are two of those environments. Corporate worship creates the kind of faith-filled environment we need — being physically present in it matters more than people often think.

    Tithing is a faith-building act of obedience.

    Giving is a faith building activity because it requires trusting God with something tangible.

    Serve somewhere.

    Serving puts us in a position where we depend on God rather than just observe from a distance.

    Tell, Listen to and read testimonies -

    Stories build our faith. Encouraging people to share their own stories, in a small group or from the stage, multiplies that effect.
    Story of James. James had MS, which doesn’t go away. He experienced a lot of trauma as a child. He deteriorated to the point where he was blind and could no longer work or even walk without help. At the very bottom of life, he went to church, gave his life to the Lord. He said, Lord, whatever I do… I will do it for you. He felt like he should be baptized so he did. When he came out of the waters, as he blinked the water out of his eyes, he fel tthe pain of the bright lights, and realized he could see. When we went to get tested, He had 20-25 vision and MS was gone.
    Let that build your faith…

    Engage with Scripture regularly -

    Faith comes by hearing the Word (Romans 10:17), so daily Bible reading, Scripture memorization, or working through a reading plan together as a church during the 21 Days would reinforce what you're teaching from the platform

    Pray Consistently -

    The 21 Days of Prayer is a great on-ramp, but encouraging people to set up a daily prayer rhythm afterward — even just 10 minutes — keeps the momentum going instead of it fading after day 21.
    If you will plug into this church for a year of your life and go all in, your faith will grow. And if a year feels like too much to commit to right now, just go all in for these 21 days

    Stories build our Faith

    Stories have a way of building our faith, so this series we’re telling stories of miracles — starting with John’s.
    1 John 1:1–3 NLT
    1 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
    John is describing what he has seen, heard, and touched. That is exactly what we’re doing this series, and it’s what God wants all of us to do. Here are a few of the relational miracles our church has witnessed:
    Story of a relational miracle.
    Joseph and His Brothers - Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, but decades later Jospeh decided to forgive his brothers. His famous quote - You meant to harm me, but God intended it for good.
    Jacob and Esau (Genesis 33) — Esau had vowed to kill Jacob after he stole his birthright and blessing. Years later, when Jacob finally works up the courage to face him, Esau runs to meet him, embraces him, and weeps. No apology tour, no negotiation — just reconciliation neither of them could've engineered on their own
    Couple that were going to separate but decided to go to church and got saved, and are still together.
    Another church - the man and his wife… Kids got saved and baptized
    Freedom - Guy went to a Freedom Group… he then led a freedom group and his estranged brother contacted him and their relationship is healed… A man was estranged from his brother. His brother would not even answer his call or texts. He went to a Freedom Group, much like one we did here, then he began to lead a Freedom Group. He wanted to do for others what had been done for him. Then his brother contacted him and their relationship wass restored.
    God still does miracles.

    Today’s focus: The Anatomy of a Miracle.

    Today we want to look at the anatomy of a healing — what actually happens when God does a miracle in our lives. Being sick in your body is hard. But there’s a worse kind of sickness: being sick in your heart. Relational wounds are difficult, and they touch every area of your life. Parents know this instinctively — you are only as happy as your saddest child. In the same way, you are only as much at peace as your worst relationship.
    Today we’re going to pray for prodigals, for children, for spouses, for family members — whatever relationship in your life needs a miracle.
    STORY  I read about a secretary whose husband had left her. She prayed for years. During a 21 Days of Prayer service, on day sixteen, he woke up, realized he was in bed with someone who wasn’t his wife, moved out, and eventually came home. God restored their marriage, and they’ve now been remarried more than twenty years.
    Here’s the tricky part about this kind of miracle — whether it’s your child or someone else you love. Nothing gets into our hearts and wounds us quite like our relationships. It’s remarkable how much power relational wounds carry in our lives. They affect our sleep, the quality of our days — everything.
    Let’s check out a story that will help us today.

    Don’t get Stuck in Haran

    Genesis 11:27–28 NLT
    27 This is the account of Terah’s family. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot. 28 But Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, the land of his birth, while his father, Terah, was still living.
    This happens before Abram receives the call of God in chapter 12 that begins the story of the Jewish nation. Haran died — and if you have ever lost a child, you know something of the pain Terah carried.
    Genesis 11:31–32 NLT
    31 One day Terah took his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai (his son Abram’s wife), and his grandson Lot (his son Haran’s child) and moved away from Ur of the Chaldeans. He was headed for the land of Canaan, but they stopped at Haran and settled there. 32 Terah lived for 205 years and died while still in Haran.
    Canaan was the promised land. But Haran — a place carrying the same name as his dead son — is where they stopped.
    I’m not certain of this, but it’s possible the call of God was originally meant for Terah. In this passage, the only thing missing is God telling him directly to leave Ur. Things might have gone differently — we might be talking about Terah, Abraham, and Isaac instead of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
    They left Ur headed for Canaan, but they settled in a place called Haran. When Terah arrived there and had to face his grief, he never moved past it — and he never reached his promise. We know where he wanted to go: Canaan. But he never got there. He got stuck where he was, remembering the pain of losing his son.
    I wonder how many people reach that same place and never step into the promises of God, simply because they never deal with their relational wounds. We have to work through those wounds — but we also need a miracle from God.
    The next sentence in the text is a sad one: “He lived 205 years and died in Haran.” He never left. He never experienced the promise God had for him.
    Some of us have been there. We’ve been stuck in Haran, needing a miracle in our relationships.
    When we look at the stories we’re telling this series, and the ones we find throughout Scripture, we start to see how God works miracles in our relationships. Here are three thoughts to help you receive one.

    Three Keys to a Relational Miracle

    God wants to do a miracle in your relationships and he will. But here are some steps that we can take to put us in a place to be see a miracle.

    1. Allow God to heal my heart.

    Let God do a work in you first. Often, before God heals a marriage or a relationship, he wants to do a work inside of you. That’s why he calls us to activate what he’s doing through the choices we make in our most painful moments.
    That’s also why Scripture has so much to say about forgiveness. You might think, “I’m not the one who needs to ask forgiveness — they are. They should call me. They did this to me.” But God is saying that if you will take the lead here, he will do a miracle. This is what Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” And right after the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus adds to it.
    Matthew 6:14–15 NLT
    14 “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.
    We have a role to play first. We need a miracle, but we also have to let God work in us.
    There was a woman who had been deeply wronged, and she said, “I will forgive him,” and prayed for God to restore her marriage. And God did restore her marriage. When we forgive others, it frees God to work in the relationship and bring healing.
    God has forgiven me so much that I will never have to forgive anyone more than he has already forgiven me. To whom much has been given, much is required — so we extend that same grace to others, even when they don’t deserve it.
    There’s an interesting verse that speaks to this.
    Ecclesiastes 3:1–5 NLT
    1 For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. 2 A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. 3 A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. 4 A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. 5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
    What does that mean? In that culture, stones were used for one of two things — you either threw them at someone, or you gathered them to build an altar. Scattering stones meant throwing them. Gathering stones meant building something sacred with them.
    For some of you, it’s time to stop throwing stones and start gathering them. Look at the story of Jacob and his father-in-law, Laban — a relationship full of drama and hurt.
    Genesis 31:44–46 NLT
    44 So come, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and it will be a witness to our commitment.” 45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a monument. 46 Then he told his family members, “Gather some stones.” So they gathered stones and piled them in a heap. Then Jacob and Laban sat down beside the pile of stones to eat a covenant meal.
    Jacob took a stone — maybe the very kind he wanted to throw at his father-in-law — and turned it into a monument instead.
    So take the stones from wherever you’ve been wounded: an absent father, an addicted parent or child, unkind words from someone who should have loved you better. If you’ll let God work in your heart, take your offense and turn it into an altar. Say, “I’m not going to carry this anymore.” I know it’s painful to talk about. But it unlocks something in the heavens.

    2. Ask God to heal my relationships.

    Now we want to get God involved in healing our relationships. Here are three things you can do to get God involved in healing your relationships.

    Pray for them.

    Pray for them — not against them. Some of us have been praying curses over people instead of blessings. Ask God to bless them. I know that’s hard, but it’s exactly what Jesus told us to do.
    Matthew 5:43–44 NLT
    43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!
    The mantra of our culture is the opposite: hate your enemy, and your enemy is anyone who disagrees with you. That’s the culture’s mantra — and the church of the living God needs to change it.
    You cannot hate someone while you are genuinely praying for them. It changes things.
    Then Jesus takes it a level further.

    Bless them.

    To bless someone means to speak well of them — which is hard to do when they’ve hurt you.
    Luke 6:27–28 NLT
    27 “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. 28 Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.
    Oh my these are tough…
    Romans 12:14 NLT
    14 Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them.
    These are hard words. But if you make up your mind that even though someone deserves every bit of your anger, you are not going to speak anything unwholesome over their life — you are going to bless them instead — God will do what only he can do.
    Billy was called up to the board to do a math problem and he went and wrote out the answer. The teacher said that’s not right, but Billy said it was. she said the answer is right but you didn’t show your work so you either guessed or cheated. Then she told him that he was a loser and would never amount to anything.
    At 15 he was playing country music in bars and living not so good of a life. He finally went to find a job and he had to take a test. This was to work for Exxon. He took the test and they said they would call him, but he said, I know I didn’t do very good. He was living out what that teach had said to him.
    They call him back and say they want to talk to him. He drove into Exxon fully expecting them to say he wasn’t good enough, but they told hi they had never had anyone score that high on the test. There is a champion inside of you and if you will put in the effort, you will do great things.
    Thats the day he points back to as the day that the curse was reversed. Your words have power.
    We pray for people… then we bless them, but then Jesus takes it to yet another level.

    Do good to them.

    Doing good means doing something genuinely beneficial for someone — something they actually need.
    Romans 12:17–21 NLT
    17 Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. 18 Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. 19 Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord. 20 Instead, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.” 21 Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.
    That last image doesn’t mean what it sounds like. In that culture, burning coals were a valuable commodity — you needed fire to cook. When a family’s fire went out, a neighbor would carry some of their own coals over so that family could cook again. It was simply a way of doing good for someone in need.
    These are the keys to seeing a miracle. Miracles happen when we allow God to do a work in us, and then ask him to do a work in our relationships.

    3. Apply God’s plan for healing and restoration.

    Sometimes God does an instant miracle. Sometimes it take following the process.

    Know God

    Find Freedom

    Discover Purpose

    Make a Difference

    Chris and Kay were divorced. They had attended church before, but it had never really taken hold in their lives. Five years later, two different people invited them back — to church, and then to a marriage small group. They worked through that group, then went through our 21 Days of Prayer together. They got remarried, and today they’re serving the Lord side by side. Kay now raises support for a Christian college.
    Prayer time
    Salvation
    Miracle Prayer — we’ll have people up front to pray with you.
    Pray for marriages — if you need a miracle in your marriage, come.
    Parents — if you need a miracle for your child, come.
    Relationships — friendships, in-law relationships, any relationship that needs God’s healing touch.
    Open your hands and receive what God has for you today — for your marriage, your children, your parents, your friendships, and every relationship he wants to restore.

      • Psalm 77:13–14NLT

      • Matthew 9:35NLT

      • 1 John 1:1–3NLT

      • Genesis 11:27–28NLT

      • Genesis 11:31–32NLT

      • Matthew 6:14–15NLT

      • Ecclesiastes 3:1–5NLT

      • Genesis 31:44–46NLT

      • Matthew 5:43–44NLT

      • Luke 6:27–28NLT

      • Romans 12:14NLT

      • Romans 12:17–21NLT

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River Church NOLA
robert@riverchurchnola.com
504-578-8317
https://riverchurchnola.com
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